Whole Foods – “Ample opportunity for one to achieve self-directed success while participating in a world-changing company.”

Pros

Whole Foods has developed around a framework it calls the Declaration of Interdependence which seeks to account for all of the stakeholders upon which the company is dependent for success. Customers, shareholders, team members, the community, and producers are taken into account in all aspects of decision making to insure an well-rounded base of support from which everybody can succeed with each other. On a more obvious level, WFM has the most competitive benefits/compensation package in the industry, including an amazing 20% discount off retail of everything in the company, good at any Whole Foods or Wild Oats location. Besides being the basis for the widespread popularization of organics and natural foods in America, Whole Foods is now significantly turning its focus to sustainability and natural capital initiatives which seek to create one of the most eco-efficient and healthful companies in the country. Team that up with amazing opportunities for career advancement and participation in social programs such as Whole Planet, in affiliation with Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhummad Yunus, and it almost seems as though WFM is in the world-changing business more than the food retail business. For the progressively-minded employee, Whole Foods doesn't even have any interest in testing for drugs, and requires only that you not be obviously under the influence while on the clock.

Cons

There truly aren't many downsides of working at Whole Foods for the average confident, happy person. Depending on your job, you are very likely to be standing on your feet 7-8 hours a day, happily awaiting your fairly short 30 minute lunch break. Though you're likely to receive the same, droll comments from a fairly common type of customer day-in and day-out, opportunity for lateral movement through a variety of different positions at the store level can prevent job-crippling boredom. If you are incapable of detaching from the misplaced anger of customers who carry try to offload their emotional baggage on unsuspecting employees whenever they can, you'll soon find yourself lashing out; just as with any customer service job. Perhaps the only other downside of the job, which is also commonly lauded as an asset to the operations of WFM, is the decentralization of segments of the company, regions, and stores that come sometimes lead to noticeable redundancies and inefficiencies, but which ultimately allows the sort of freedom where you never quite become a "cog in a machine wheel."

Advice to Senior Management

The Senior Management (global and regional leadership teams) do an exceptional job of leading Whole Foods with the same sort of vision today that created a quiet revolution in the grocery industry twenty-five years ago, but there are certainly some opportunities for improvement. Perhaps the most obvious opportunity is to branch beyond the traditional Tribal Gathering which takes into account all levels of leadership down to Store Team Leaders and consider a Team Member version that increases the stake TMs feel they have in the company. Via a lottery or nomination process, TMs could thus come together in a gathering with certain levels of leadership that would overcome the hierarchical filters that prevent TM needs and concerns from being properly communicated by higher levels of leadership. The entire premise of such an event, in fact, is predicated on the inefficiency of middle management that has seemingly become necessarily pervasive as WFM has increased in size and success. I personally have a number of examples where John Mackey has, upon interacting with TMs, been dismayed at the restrictions set forth by STLs or RVPs and just as quickly overturned the ridiculous rules that were preventing true TM happiness. Overall, just review the Declaration of Interdependence openly and honestly and insure that the struggle to balance TMs, customers, shareholders, communities, and producers is being publicly communicated for full transparency.